Lately, I've been spending most of my free time by the ocean. I go right after work and I stay until the sun has set. I listen to music or read or walk along the shore, staring at the clouds slowly turn a warm pink and gold until finally they transform into a cool, deep bluish gray. I do this alone. I think that this is my form of meditation. At night I tend to worry about tomorrow. But when I'm at the beach, the water captivates me. I have no room to think of anything else except for the waves crashing and the seagulls crying and the wind blowing its song into my ear.
The best moment for me is always when the sky becomes alive. The pink and blue and orange clouds coat the world above me like pieces of cotton candy. The sun becomes this dark amber half circle submerging behind the black outlines of tall buildings closest to the beach. The water is a reflection of above, so that when it crashes along the shore and withdraws back into the sea, it leaves a glistening film of silver and color so vivid you feel as if you are walking on they sky.
I love to stroll barefoot on this sky water. I walk towards the jetty and I climb the rocks and I hear the crash of waves and taste the salt of the sea on my tongue and there's no other moment but the moment I'm living right then. There's no fear. There's no worry. My mind is clear and formless. I take out my iPhone and try to capture the soul of the sea in images. I only get a glimpse of its secret heart, something dark and powerful and pulsing with the energy of countless years of being. I don't flinch when the gulls fly nearby. I don't panic as night pulls its shroud across the world and the beach becomes this silent shadowed place. I feel harmony here.
When I know I must leave and I turn my back from the water, I feel its pull tugging the strings of my heart. I feel the depth of its existence cradle some worried section of my heart. It will be here tomorrow. This I can be certain of. The moon is at my back. My soul is shrouded in salt and the weightless brilliance of sunset clouds. I feel beauty all around me. And it is a gentle, happy feeling.
